*[http://home.versatel.nl/chotki/a_life_of_evagrius_of_pontus.htm A Life of Evagrius of Pontus]

*[http://home.versatel.nl/chotki/a_life_of_evagrius_of_pontus.htm A Life of Evagrius of Pontus]

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*[http://www.evagrius.net Home of the <i>PIT</i>scan, a spiritual diagnostic tool derived from the teachings of Evagrius]

[[Category:Asceticism]]

[[Category:Asceticism]]

Revision as of 10:16, March 26, 2006

Evagrius Ponticus (c. 346-399) was an Egyptian monastic, and one of the earliest spiritual writers on asceticism in the Christian eremitic tradition. He is also called Evagrius of Pontus or Evagrius the Solitary. Some of his works are included in the Philokalia.

Evagrius passed on his firsthand knowledge of the Desert Fathers to many visitors and disciples, becoming particularly well known for his teaching on prayer. He exhorted his followers to practice the virtues, engage in regular Psalmody, and refrain from making any physical/mental images during prayer. However, like so many others, he became influenced by the teachings of Origen, believing in the doctrines of apokatastasis, the "restitution of all things" (including the reconciliation of Satan), and in the Platonic notion of the pre-existence of the soul. The Fifth Ecumenical Council (Second Constantinople) in 553 deemed both these doctrines (and Origen himself) heretical. Although never glorified as a saint, Evagrius' teachings on asceticism, prayer, and the spiritual life had a profound impact upon both Christian East and West.

Works

On Asceticism and Stillness in the Solitary Life

On Discrimination in respect of Passions and Thoughts

On Watchfulness

On Prayer: 153 Texts

Quotations

Whoever loves true prayer and yet becomes angry or resentful is his own enemy. He is like a man who wants so see clearly and yet inflicts damage on his own eyes. –Treatise on Prayer, 64

Whether you pray with brethren or alone, try to pray not simply as a routine, but with conscious awareness of your prayer. Conscious awareness of prayer is concentration accompanied by reverence, compunction and distress of soul as it confesses its sin with inward sorrow. -unknown work

If you are a theologian, you will pray truly. And if you pray truly, you are a theologian. - Treatise on Prayer, 61.

Bread is food for the body and holiness is food for the soul: prayer is food for the intellect. - Ibid., 101.

Evil thoughts cut off good thoughts and are cut off by good thoughts - On Discrimination in Respect of Passions and Thoughts, 6.

Spiritual reading, vigils, and prayer bring the straying intellect to stability. Hunger, exertion, and withdrawal from the world wither burning lust. - Extracts from the Texts on Watchfulness, 5.